Hello, I want to install Mint 14 Cinnamon 32-bit on a quite old Sony PCG-5 AIM laptop (2003-2004) currently with Windows XP Professional installed. I changed the BIOS settings to tell the laptop to boot from the optical drive, but it keeps starting with Windows. Is the laptop too old to run Mint 14?

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. “ Buckminster Fuller

No, the laptop is not too old, but the drive may be a CD drive and Mint 14 Cinnamon is a DVD image file. If your drive is not a DVD drive, you may need to at least hook up an external DVD drive or copy the .iso file to a thumb drive and use the Plop Linux boot manager or Super GRUB CD boot disk to allow boot from the USB thumb drive.

Thank you cwsynder and Bill.I looked up the Plop Linux boot manager but I didn't find any instructions to use it. It is a Pentium M (Sony Vaio PCG-5 AIM) which should have a PAE capable CPU but is there a way to check? It has a DVD drive but it refuses to boot from the optical drive. I can also borrow an external DVD drive. Since it only has 512 Ram (and 60 GB hard drive) could it be faster if I install Mint 13 Maya Mate 32 bits instead?

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. “ Buckminster Fuller

OK, I found out that Vaio laptops don't allow you to boot from CD drive, I will need to boot from a USB drive. Looking at Plop Linux but no idea how to use it and which version. Also what will it be wiser to install Mint 13 Mate (which I already use on my main laptop and is great) or Mint 14 Cinnamon (that looks terrific!)? The laptop is probably one of the first models with PAE capable CPU.Daveinuk, isn't that to install Linux on the USB drive and run it from there?

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. “ Buckminster Fuller

The Plop boot manager works if you can boot from a CD drive, as will the Super GRUB disk, but, since you say you can't boot from the DVD drive, that shoots that idea in the head.

The Universal USB installer works to install a bootable copy of Linux on a USB drive without having to boot from CD first. You can also make a bootable thumb drive from your main laptop Mint 13 installation using the USB installer included with Mint, or you can install unetbootin from the repositories on Mint or in Windows to do the same as the Universal USB installer, installing a bootable copy of Mint 14 Cinnamon 32-bit.

Plop also boots from the floppy, if you have a floppy. You don't give enough information about your system...

With 512MB of RAM you have enough RAM to run any Mint edition but I would recommend something with XFCE or LXDE. MATE, Cinnamon and KDE use more RAM and CPU. Cinnamon also needs some 3D support or a fast CPU to emulate 3D.

Some Pentium M don't support the PAE kernel, we need to know exact CPU model or it's better to stay with Mint 13 LTS or LMDE. Unless you like to upgrade every 6 months it's better to stay with the LTS release anyway.

PAE arrived with the Intel Pentium Pro in 1995, I am pretty sure that laptop is not one of first with PAE (wrong millennium) but if is one of the last without PAE you can't run Mint 14 without some trickery.

sudo dd if=~/Desktop/linuxmint.iso of=/dev/sdx oflag=direct bs=1048576Where '~/Desktop/linuxmint.iso' is the name and location of your downloaded image (located at the desktop in this example) and '/dev/sdx' is the target USB drive. If your system doesn't support 'oflag=direct', you can just leave it out as it is simply intended to speed up the process a bit.

If you don't know about the target USB drive path, run this command and figure out your destination drive.sudo fdisk -lWarning: Make sure to set the correct device path, as this process will delete all data that was on the specified device previously!

Remember, don't include an integer for the USB drive, e.g. '/dev/sdx1', as it would refer to the existing partition on that drive and not the drive itself.

When the USB has been properly created by 'dd', there should be an output similar to this:sudo dd if=~/Desktop/linuxmint.iso of=/dev/sdb oflag=direct bs=1048576706+1 records in706+1 records out740601856 bytes (741 MB) copied, 91.7024 s, 8.1 MB/s

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. “ Buckminster Fuller

@seavagabond: You are mostly correct in following the tutorial, except you left out the

oflag=direct

which was used in the tutorial. I'm not sure that it is needed. You can also use a block size other than the size given, as long as it is a multiple of 512 bytes with the oflag setting, such as 4096 10K 1M or 100M

dd wants either input or output to be from/to a block device rather than a file folder, that is why the /dev/sdb

It looks from that list as though the laptop will allow you to boot from the optical drive. I know my old (~2006) Sony Vaio does. What it does not have the option to do though is boot from USB - which it seems yours doesn't either.

I had the same problem with my old laptop, it simply will not boot from a dvd or usb, but likes cd images. I had to go with Mint 12 lxde in the end, or at least until I can find another os that suits it. Working well though.

Well it certainly worked for me, but images that small (Mint at least) are few. I went with Mint 12 lxde, as the most up to date of that size.Here's my post on the subjectviewtopic.php?f=46&t=123802 or you try for Mint 13 on a cd size iso hereviewtopic.php?f=46&t=103449Good luck!

And BIG respect for you doing road racing.. I am a mere spectator/marshal, but road racing is the most exhilirating sport out there, I have been going to the UGP for 20 years now, wouldn't dream of missing it, 1995 was a rare hot and dry meeting. I NEVER fail to be totally impressed!

Trying to make a decision I summed up what I need the old laptop to do, a Sony Vaio PCG-5 AIM, 512 Ram, 60 GB hard drive, year 2003 or 2004:

I need the computer to connect easily with Internet dongles and WIFI.I need to set up a LAMP environment since I'm working with CMS websites and Drupal 7.I use intensively GIMP.I need the video player to work (I use VLC).I need to be able to have several programs open at the same time (usually Firefox, LibreOffice/Open Office, Gimp, Blue Fish Editor, Filezilla).

A year ago I installed Linux Mint 23 Maya Mate 64-bits on my Toshiba Portege R500, now a few years old but still my best laptop. Everything worked right from the beginning. LibreOffice is still sometimes slow to start and Firefox will slow down if I have too many windows open, which is a bit of a pain. The Software Manager stopped working after a while so I use the command line to install programs. I'm learning to use the command line so problems are getting easier to deal with. Note: the Toshiba Portege crtl keys don't work which is a real pain now that I use the command line and Drush. Eventually I intend to install Mint 14 Nadia on this laptop. If I install Linux on the Sony Vaio, which has also a larger screen, I would use this for web development.

I had installed Ubuntu on my Toshiba Portege in the past that I really liked but there were always issues that compelled me to buy a Windows netbook (I still refused to re-install Vista).

P.S. excollier Yes, it was a very hot summer, who says that it always rains in Ireland? Road racing is the ultimate bike experience! The Ulser Grand Prix is FANTASTIC! Well done for being one of the wonderful marshals. They killed motorcycling in England, I don't know about Ireland, but you don't see motorcyclists on the roads any more, nobody can afford it, especially young people. Another victory of the car industry. Very sad! Let's be aware that we have Microsoft breath on our neck, before we know it, we might end up in just a few with a Linux laptop. Cheers. francesca

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. “ Buckminster Fuller

The laptop refuses to boot from the Optical Disk even if, in the Bios, I disabled from rebooting the Floppy Disk Drive, Hard Disk Drive and Network.I inserted the CD with the CD version of Linux Mint 13 Maya 32-bit of Gutknecht (viewtopic.php?f=46&t=103449) and nothing happened.The laptop proceeded to boot from the hard drive and I got the message “Operating System not found”.The DVD player works properly since I can play current DVDs.

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. “ Buckminster Fuller

Looks like an expert is required!I can't get either of mine to boot from usb (for MacPup).And yes, it rains practically all the time here, although the NW200 and the UGP were two exceptional (dry, warm, sunny) days last year, magic.